Antonia Langford
Sun, November 2, 2025 at 9:03 AM EST
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic New York City mayoral candidate, has been widely projected to triumph in the race - Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Barack Obama praised Zohran Mamdani in a private telephone call on Saturday, with just days to go before the New York City mayoral election.
The former US president described Mr Mamdani’s campaign as “impressive to watch” in the call and offered his services as a “sounding board”, according to The New York Times.
Mr Obama, still a highly influential voice in the Democratic party, has avoided intervention in municipal contests since he left office and has not endorsed any candidate publicly in the New York race, which will go to the polls on Tuesday.
In the phone call, which lasted roughly 30 minutes, Mr Obama expressed his support for Mr Mamdani’s success beyond the election and discussed the challenges of staffing a new administration and how to enact the frontrunner’s policies of affordability in the city.
The 34-year-old relative newcomer in politics has seen a meteoric rise in the polls since his shock victory over Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, in the Democratic primary in June, and has long been widely projected to triumph in the race.
Mr Cuomo is running against him again as an independent candidate, while Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, is the Republican nominee.
But Mr Mamdani has been slow to attract endorsements from major holdouts in his party, who have attempted to sidestep association with his radical, far-Left policies.
After distancing himself from Mr Mamdani for several months, Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, finally endorsed the Democratic nominee on Oct 24.
The division is also symptomatic of the rudderlessness of the Democratic Party, which is suffering from a crisis of identity as it continues to reel from sweeping losses in 2024, which saw it squeezed out of power in the federal government.
But the Democrats have been flocking to lend their support to a knife-edge vote in neighbouring New Jersey.
Mr Obama made an appearance at a campaign rally there on Saturday evening in support of Mikie Sherrill, the Democrat running for governor against Jack Ciattarelli, a Trump-endorsed candidate.
Barack Obama has praised Zohran Mamdani’s ‘impressive’ campaign - Michael M Santiago/Getty Images
Mr Obama used his speech to attack the Trump administration, saying: “It’s hard to know where to start, because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness… I mean, it’s like every day is Halloween, except it’s all tricks and no treats.”
Mr Mamdani’s flagship policies include increasing taxes on New York City’s wealthiest, raising corporation tax, and promoting affordable housing through freezing stabilised apartment rental rates.
He has attracted particular admiration among young voters with a viral social media campaign, including a popular stunt which involved walking the length of Manhattan – around 13 miles – to speak to dozens of New Yorkers on the streets.
His supporters have contrasted his grassroots efforts, which included sending a 50,000-strong army of volunteers door to door, with the establishment status of Mr Cuomo, who has attracted financial backing from rich donors.
However, he has drawn criticism for comments about 9/11, which were mocked by JD Vance, as well as for likening the New York police department to the Israel Defense Forces in 2023.
Mr Mamdani, a strident Israel critic, was also criticised for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”, which many view as a call to violence against Jewish people.
He would be the first Muslim mayor of a city that’s home to almost 900,000 Muslims and has campaigned at 60 mosques across the city, delivering a viral address about his experience of Islamophobia at the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx in the final weeks of his campaign.
Mr Obama used his speech to attack the Trump administration, saying: “It’s hard to know where to start, because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness… I mean, it’s like every day is Halloween, except it’s all tricks and no treats.”
Mr Mamdani’s flagship policies include increasing taxes on New York City’s wealthiest, raising corporation tax, and promoting affordable housing through freezing stabilised apartment rental rates.
He has attracted particular admiration among young voters with a viral social media campaign, including a popular stunt which involved walking the length of Manhattan – around 13 miles – to speak to dozens of New Yorkers on the streets.
His supporters have contrasted his grassroots efforts, which included sending a 50,000-strong army of volunteers door to door, with the establishment status of Mr Cuomo, who has attracted financial backing from rich donors.
However, he has drawn criticism for comments about 9/11, which were mocked by JD Vance, as well as for likening the New York police department to the Israel Defense Forces in 2023.
Mr Mamdani, a strident Israel critic, was also criticised for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”, which many view as a call to violence against Jewish people.
He would be the first Muslim mayor of a city that’s home to almost 900,000 Muslims and has campaigned at 60 mosques across the city, delivering a viral address about his experience of Islamophobia at the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx in the final weeks of his campaign.
Recent polling suggests Andrew Cuomo has halved Zohran Mamdani’s lead in the race with just a week to go until the election - Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Mr Cuomo, who was forced to resign as governor of New York four years ago after the state attorney general found that he had sexually harassed around a dozen women, has trailed behind Mr Mandani by double-digit margins for the entirety of the election.
A raft of billionaire New Yorkers, as well as Donald Trump, have urged that Mr Sliwa drop out of the race to avoid splitting the anti-Mamdani vote with Mr Cuomo.
Recent polling suggests that Mr Cuomo had halved the gap between himself and Mr Mamdani to 10 points a week before the election, but Mr Mamdani is still widely projected to forge his way to victory on Tuesday.
Early figures suggest the race could attract the highest mayoral election turnout in decades.
But the Democratic nominee warned voters on Thursday morning not to become complacent, saying that “the billionaires who rigged our economy and tried to buy an election don’t give up easy”.
Mr Trump has called Mr Mamdani a “communist” and vowed to send troops onto the streets of Manhattan in the event of his victory, while Republicans pledged this week to make the frontrunner “synonymous with the Democratic Party nationwide”.
Mr Obama first called Mr Mamdani in late June after his primary victory, as Patrick Gaspard, a Mamdani adviser and former political aide in the Obama administration, said the former head of state had initiated the discussion “unsolicited” and “unprompted”.
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